SI has learned that ESPN will have significant cost-cutting over the next four months on its talent side (people in front of the camera or audio/digital screen). Multiple sources said ESPN has been tasked with paring tens of millions of staff salary from its payroll, including staffers many viewers and readers will recognize. Those with contracts coming up would be particularly vulnerable, sources said. The company is also expected to buyout some existing contracts, which is something rare for ESPN historically beyond a few NFL talents. The cuts are expected to be completed by June. Sources within ESPN say that there is no set list of names yet and stressed that behind-the-scenes people will likely (key word) not be impacted by these cuts.

Last month Reuters reported Disney had a lower-than-expected quarterly revenue, hurt by the drop in advertising revenue at ESPN. In addition, ESPN continues to shed subscribers at an enhanced rate, down to 88.4 million households in Dec. 2016. That number was 100.002 million in Feb. 2011.

Though it remains one of the great destination jobs in the sports media and hiring will continue, ESPN has experienced significant layoffs over the last two years. In Oct. 2015 the company laid off roughly 300 employees, many who had spent their entire professional careers at ESPN. Sports Business Daily media writer John Ourand, in this piece on those layoffs, examined the skyrocketing rights fees and deep distribution cuts that led to those layoffs.

On Sunday when contacted by SI.com, an ESPN spokesperson provided the following statement: “We have long been about serving fans and innovating to create the best content for them. Today’s fans consume content in many different ways and we are in a continuous process of adapting to change and improving what we do. Inevitably that has consequences for how we utilize our talent. We are confident that ESPN will continue to have a roster of talent that is unequaled in sports.”

Remain calm. All is well. This is fine. Ignore the laid off employees behind the curtain.

Hey, look on the bright side. At least McGarity’s got another reason to cite for his rainy day fund.

“I think if we move toward true pay for play, if we give students money over and above that which reimburses them for their costs, then you kill the goose that’s laying the golden eggs,” says IU Athletics Director Fred Glass. “You take away the special sauce out of sports … I think you lose the magic of sports.”

In the end, Luck says he doesn’t foresee the NCAA moving away from their core values.

“Because those values, in my mind, are somewhat timeless, I think they’ll be around a long, long time,” he says. “I think if you take a [look] back at college athletics over the last 145 or 146 years, I think most folks would say it’s been a force for good in this country.”

If the special sauce is so tasty, why don’t they ever suggest serving it with their coaches and administrators, too? Don’t those folks love the game as much as the players do?

“While I was at Clemson, I was one of those guys who thought totally different from the other guys around me. I wasn’t your typical athlete. I found myself more aware of other things that were going on behind the scenes. I could see how they [the NCAA] would cover things up, while also telling us that we’re privileged and we’re blessed because we have a scholarship. Even though it’s true that I was blessed, I viewed playing football as an investment. When you have schools that are spending $20,000 and more each year to get players on campus, but are bringing in $17,000,000 in a bowl game, it starts to devalue the scholarship.”

The national media keeps hinting that it’s expecting bigger things from Georgia in Kirby Smart’s second season. Here, from an article about things to watch from spring football, comes this:

UGA is the textbook definition of a sleeping giant. The state produces plenty of blue-chip talent each year, and the SEC East remains a division ripe for the taking. The Bulldogs’ offense has two star running backs returning in Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, and quarterback Jacob Eason has a year of experience under his belt. For all the hype East division foe Tennessee has received lately, Georgia is the program that feels like it’s on the verge of exploding.

Not that the media gets this stuff right most of the time, but I expect the Dawgs to emerge from SEC Media Days as their choice to win the division this season. Which means it’s time to cue the GTP reader poll department.

John Calipari, as is his wont when conference tourneys are the subject of discussion, speaks truth to power.

Calipari always has placed the importance of NCAA tournament preparation and seeding ahead of any value in a league tournament trophy. His Wildcats (26-5) are seeded first in this year’s 14-team SEC field, having won the regular season with a 16-2 league record.

Kentucky, which has been seeded first or second in every SEC tournament under Calipari, will open play Friday afternoon against the winner of Thursday’s matchup between eighth-seeded Georgia and ninth-seeded Tennessee.

“This tournament to me is all about preparation,” Calipari said Saturday afternoon in a news conference after a 71-63 win at Texas A&M. “That’s why I don’t like it ending on a Sunday. When they throw you a Thursday game (in the NCAA tournament) like they did last year, that’s five games in eight days if you get to the second (NCAA) game.

“It’s five games in eight days for these young kids, and it’s not fair. When you play Sunday and they put you in the Thursday bracket, you better hope the team that you face on Saturday (in the NCAA tournament) is as tired as you and that they played on Sunday.”

With a 64-team national playoff, conference basketball tournaments, at least from the standpoint of upper tier teams like Kentucky, are as useless as tits on a boar hog.

College football doesn’t face that problem as of yet, but between years like this past one, when winning a conference title game (or even playing in one, for that matter) wasn’t a necessity for reaching the national semifinals, and the future enlargement of the postseason pool, it’s a scenario that has legs.

When that day comes, either there will be enough money in the pot that the conferences won’t mind sacrificing their own championships for the national good, or, more likely, they’ll keep the games anyway for the extra revenue. At which point you can cue the bitching from someone like Nick Saban the first time he loses a key player to an injury in a meaningless conference championship game. Not that it’ll matter.

Quote Of The Day

“Give them credit, but I think everybody can see that Georgia’s going to be a force to be reckoned with. I’m very proud of this team and this university, and we’re not going anywhere.’ — Kirby Smart, AJ-C, 1/9/18